Tell me your honest view about my store

[Former_Member]

I am looking for people who will give me an honest opinion about my store.

I started the store in July (with different products to now) and only recently began selling Vintage items this August. I am new to the vintage scene.

I am curious to what people think and of ways I can improve.

This week I have gotten 562 views, 17 shop favourites, 100 listing favourites. In my eyes that is very good for a newbie, yet there is no sales and I wonder why this is happening. I am trying not to get discouraged but need help so I can improve.

Tell me your opinions and suggestions please

:)

[Former_Member]

I have only had 2 in july

[Former_Member]

I,m in the same boat,

Just have to give it time I suppose and keep improving things on your shop.

[Former_Member]

sorry my computer

[Former_Member]

I don't know much about selling vintage, but I would suggest rephotograohing your items in better light... morning light works pretty well for representing color and it's not quite as yellow as afternoon or artificial light. I hope that helps!

I've been here for over a year now and have found that sales don't usually correlate directly with views and likes... for me, at least. Just trust that the more activity you get, the more folks will see your store!

[ShopOrangeBlossoms]

I'd suggest improving the photos. Some are shadowy or it's hard to tell what the item is. There may not also be a huge market for what you're selling,or there is too much competition (I'm in the same boat selling hair accessories!).

[Former_Member]

Photo improvement is a definite. And your banner would be nice if that watermark from the free banner maker was gone.

[DaisyCottageDesigns]

As everyone else has said, the biggest thing you could do is to improve your photos - to me that's definitely what sells items.

[mahoganybludesign]

Hi Sarah,
Congrats on opening your shop. Becky from forgottenland is correct, don't watch those numbers too much. They will drive you crazy. We've had our shop for a little over a year and the best advise we've had is just to concentrate on making you shop better.
1. Better photos: Your lighting is dark and it makes the color off. Remeber photos are the only way the customer can see your product. The seller handbook has great articles on photography.
2. An idea of scale. I posted an example of a clear, well lit photo.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/90232124/vintage-wood-block-pulley-industrial

3. Work on your background.
4. Build a theme, a consistent look.
5. Continue to build your inventory.
6. Summers tend to be slow in general. It is a time of planning, Fall and the hoilday season will be here in no time. Do you want to be really?

Hope this helps.

[JaneStaufferPaperCo]

I agree...about photos.
I just find a black banner gives me a sad feeling about what you are selling.

Your prices are really fair. I do like your collection of items for sale.
Don't give up....you should do well.

[Former_Member]

Personally I think the gothis header needs to go and the photos need to be retaken, sorry if i sound rude. If you are doing a vintage shop I think it needs to be bright fun and classy! So maybe re-do the heaer and new photos! Maybe pay a someone to do photos if you can't.

xoxo
-Jemima

[Former_Member]

Hi!

I will agree with previous comments. Photos are very important, and the banner is the first impression. My banner is not great on this shop that im on but I havent found one I love, love, love yet. My other shop is very hollywood regency, and has worked well. Its bold, modern, black and white...goes okay with what I have but is also being updated.

Your banner, selling vintage items, I think should look a little vintage-y. Something older like this: http://www.etsy.com/listing/106381923/custom-etsy-banner-and-avatar-design-set?ref=sr_gallery_27&ga_...


Idk if you can copy and paste that that showed up, haha but it is clean, and old looking but still classy. Just choose something that is still your style, easy to read, and is easy to the eye. The black looks burlesque, like back then but not classy.

The photos look best on white. If you read other threads everyone stresses white for clean, easy to view, attractive photos.

Even the necklaces if they are on something bright white, they will pop. In this shop, I used a china plate. May not be the best, but for the time being, its better than the couch or something, or a brown table that my other shop items used to be on. Once I changed photos, my sales boooooosted!

To get more traffic match your titles with your descriptions which should then match your keywords.

Your sections are easy, which is nice.

Some of the photography...I was pretty sure it was a photograph but because the image takes up the entire thumbnail and theres no frame, I wasnt toootally sure. Maybe put that in the first part of the title so that its obvious and that will help search words too.

Just my thoughts :).

Btw, I just bought my kids those ironing beads!! They love them. I grew up with them as well. Awesome to see some from back then, haha.

[Former_Member]

Hi -- I went to your shop and had no problems with the photos or the layout. I found the descriptions of your items very confusing and ungrammatical. In some cases, I wasn't really very sure what you were selling. I would suggest that you have some one go over them to ensure that they are as clear as possible.

[AnneLondezGlass]

Sarah, photos have been mentioned already so I won't repeat it. But I see that your titles are not optimized for searches, words like "beautiful" or "cute" don't help you, especially when they are in the first 3 words of the title, which are important for Etsy's search bot. I'd suggest that you join a SEO team to see how your shop can be optimized in that respect.

[Former_Member]

Hey everyone! I was asleep when everyone replied haha.

Thank you for the advice everyone. I have been unsure about my photo's. I love doing photography but when it comes to photography for selling photo's nothing seems to work out. I do admit I do a lot more photo's at night then day time, as I sleep more in the morning as I work nights (I work as a carer so I am on call but am allowed to do my vintage shop stuff there too!). So I guess il have to get up earlier then haha

I have uploaded a lot more items today. It's on a different background. Can you tell me if that looks nice?

I currently live in a rubbish room at the care house I work so my room is pretty much basic with piles of my stuff everywhere. i don't own a table, frustratingly. I am considering getting a shelf for my room, maybe in brown so that I can take photo's with the items on there.

Anne can you explain more about the the title thing as I just looked through my listings and I am sure there is no titles of the products with cute etc in.

About the header. It was a simple one I picked yesterday as my shop is in mid-change over and that was the nicest one I could get. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make or where to get banners from? I don't know much about this.

Thanks Arthur. I will have a peek at what I have written and try and make a change.

Please can people check out my new listings and tell me if it is any better?

https://www.etsy.com/listing/107528377/wakelins-street-guide-of-bristol?ref=v1_other_1

[Former_Member]

Hi There,

You've got a lot of really cool things in your shop. I agree about the photos. I think that it is best to go with a neutral background for your items. I think that if they had a white background, you'd get some exposure on treasuries. Talking photos is one of the most time consuming things to do here. Hope this helps.

[Former_Member]

I agree with others about the photos, and the importance of a neutral background. If you must use fabric, then it should not have wrinkles, which looks rather sloppy and might actually detract from the item's worth in the minds of prospective customers.

When you're writing your descriptions, don't forget to include details like the dimensions of the item. If possible, have someone help you edit them for spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

[ClairAshley]

It's a neat store!
Your photo's are too dark and it's hard for me to really see and appreciate the products you're selling. Lighter or whiter backgrounds would really make the product stand out.
Good luck!

[Former_Member]

Honestly, the photographs are not very good, The cloth you used for the background is messy It will look good if you ironed it. But I think a white background will be good to list your items

[Former_Member]

So I took your advice and changed the background. We don't have any white surfaces at home, as this is a council building for caring and the colours are badly matched. I took the photo's on the kitchen work top as it is the closest thing to white we have. Improvement???

https://www.etsy.com/listing/107661098/sindy-gift-book-1965-annual-collectable

[MelsCreativeWishes]

Hi Sarah, You have got some great things in your shop and the pricing seems good.
The first thing I noticed about your shop was the quality of the photos. They aren't bright and crisp and the pink background doesn't help. I also noticed your sizing in some isn't right, like the item below.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/107577097/postman-pat-egg-cup-housewares
try resizing to 570x500 pixels.
Also I noticed in the listings I read the description of you haven't mentioned sizes, height, diameter, and this is something most buyers would want to know.
good luck.

[Former_Member]

Hey Mel thanks for the advice. I have recently changed one of my photo's to a white backing, as I explained in previous post that at home we have nothing white so I have had to use the kitchen top, check out the link below and tell me what you think?

How do you resize the picture? I don't have any technical or professional equipment on my laptop.

Thanks for the advice about mentioning sizes. I will sort this out in the following days.

Do you think buyers actually read policies too? or should I write them on each listing?

[JaneStaufferPaperCo]

Re-do and get back to us again.
I looked again at your shop and it looks like you are taking our suggestions to heart....(something that not everyone does)
Good for you!

[Former_Member]

Hi Sarah,

Re: resizing pictures.

I think I would agree, a lot is to do with photos, you have some lovely things, the photos just need a bit of work. For instance, the horoscope and emo magnets photos look great, but the other ones of similar products look yellowy.

For free imaging software, try pixlr, you don't even have to download anything you just use it online. Also, if you've got a reasonably new computer, have you got microsoft picture editor on it? I find that works just fine for resizing or making basic brightness/contrast edits.

If you're still struggling, drop me a PM and I will give you a hand sorting them out.

Lucy x

[Former_Member]

Hi lucy I am on that pixlr website now. What do you have to click to make the pictures smaller?